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One reason for Imran Khan’s rise to prominence was his trumpeting of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which measures perceived levels of public sector corruption, i.e. administrative and political corruption. Even today, the PTI attracts support through the popular perception that politicians of its rivals—especially the PPP and PMLN—are corrupt people who hide their ill-gotten wealth abroad while Pakistan sinks deeper into poverty. Similarly, petty corruption in the form of bribery is prevalent in law-enforcement and provision of public services, while the judiciary is not seen as independent and is considered to be shielding corrupt political practices from prosecution.
The core of Khan’s agitprop campaign ahead of the 2018 general elections was the 2016 Panama Papers scandal that pulled in then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif, despite his name not even appearing in them. Allegations were raised on his family’s ownership of properties in London with an unclear money-trail, with the Supreme Court unanimously seeking his disqualification; despite denying any wrongdoing, Sharif formally resigned from office after the verdict. The lack of trust in Pakistan’s judicial process can be gauged from how Sharif—despite this case—still remains the most credible challenge to Khan’s suicidal isolationism, universally seen as a death-wish for Pakistan’s future.
But for all his current status as the ruling coalition’s bête noire, Khan isn’t solely to blame for the prevailing political crisis. No Pakistani prime minister has ever completed a full, five-year term, with all having either been dismissed on corruption charges, or resigned, or even assassinated. It is undeniable that corruption generally plagues the country’s population, having infiltrated its socio-economic and political landscape with no one—including the judiciary and Army—appearing to have any clear stance on tackling it, raising questions on whether it is even solvable.
In this scenario, it is not surprising that Pakistan’s ranking on the CPI has consistently declined from 2017 till now. In its report for 2022, Transparency noted that the country had retained its rank of 140 out of 180 countries, but had lost another point of its overall score, now standing at 27, the lowest in a decade. To summarize, the country’s corruption ranking has dropped by 23—from 117 to 140—between 2017 and 2022, including during the years that the PTI was in power after promising to tackle graft. Khan has sought to compensate for his failure to fulfill the PTI’s promises by seeking external enemies and displaying ambivalence about a resurgence of terrorism. Unfortunately, there is little appetite for tackling corruption in a Pakistan that is perpetually beset by political instability.